I AM BACK!!!

I AM BACK!!!

I indeed am back from an interesting 13 day sabbatical. Right from the moment I left the office premises on the 15th of February, 2005; I was dreaming of the lovely golden beaches of Goa. This trip was the outcome of 60-80 days of planning, much more of coaxing and finally the willingness of all the people involved. The last fortnight has been a helluva experience for me and it will take something really outstanding to remove its imprints from my heart. I have tried to gather some of the moments of the trip in this collage of mine; and you might as well call this a highlight package.

The anticipation & excitement of the trip (14th and 15th February, 2005)

Whoa…Valentine Day and am a singleton wastrel. Who would have thought of my bachelor blues after the honeymoon period that I spent in the four years of my graduation? But then things happened and things happened, and I am somehow glad that I am single. Isn’t it wonderful to have all those pretty options all around you? You crave for them, and yet they somehow manage to slip away.

What the heck! I am supposed to jot down my excitement about the trip. Bah, I don’t have a proper luggage item where I can pack my things. What on earth will I do??? Darn, another shopping extravaganza….this time it is a backpack. I hope it is “constructive investment” of sorts. I always have this guilt feeling of spending more than I earn. Can’t help it though….this one cost me 1125 bucks, quite a lot is it?

What shall I do in the 32 hour train journey? Last time I took this train, it rained all throughout the trip and I couldn’t see a thing outside. What a waste of time….I wish I earned more, but then am not used to flights! Whatever, a 2AC ticket isn’t exactly a cheap alternative, but then…..won’t I get the amount classified as non-taxable from the company LTA? Anyway, I took some novels along with me for “time-pass”. That dazzling babe back in the bus took away the Anurag Mathur waala novel, but then….kuch pane ke liye kuch khona padta hai;-)

Office on 15th came and went, but I didn’t do any work. There was no teleconference, no excel sheets, no word pads (this is basically my tool set these days!)….absolutely nothing. Arindam got the news that he was indeed going to Chicago. It was only a matter of pinpointing the exact date. I might not be around when he leaves, but I was glad for him. He had been counting on this opportunity for a long time, and this was his moment of glory. Good luck Ary Baby!

On Train….the journey starts (15th and 16th February, 2005)

People may come and people may go, but I go on for ever…read this somewhere during my matriculation days…the book’s name was Flights of Fantasy…good collection of poems I must say. Such was my tryst with the Indian Railways that the journey never seemed to end. Thankfully I had the company of certain people whose background was as diverse as it could possibly be. There was a chef, and he worked in Wimbledon; there was an oil rig digger; there was a gentleman from JK Paper Mills, who was the IT department head albeit he didn’t know anything about IT; and there was this elderly person who happened to have a fair amount of idea about anything and everything under the sun. Never had I been in such a group at any stage of my life. It was an insightful journey, and I figured out that there is so much more to this world than what I could possibly comprehend. And to top it all, I met the most beautiful face in my entire trip in the first leg itself. Short hairs, slightly chubby cheeks, and that glint of mischief in her eyes…..she must be around 7 years of age at most. It was not until I was 200 odd kms away from Pune that I finally got her name from her mother…..and the bloody careless person that I am..…I instantly forgot the name. It doesn’t really matter, the outlines of the face are still etching in my memories, and somehow I linked the face to that of my elder sister. Call it brotherly affection for my sis, but there was a moment I wanted my daughter to be just like that….a mix between the sweet and naughty!

Amidst all this ga-ga stuff, I must not forget my motto when I boarded the train. The first thing that I did was to check in the reservation list pasted outside the compartment any “F” between 20 and 30. There was a solitary entry….aged 28….I didn’t read the name. She was around 10 seats away from me, and I just hoped she was a good one. She indeed was, a stunning and gracious woman….only she was the mom of the kid I was earlier talking about. Now you all must have got the idea why I forgot the kid’s name in the first place……deceptive feelings…..that’s the generalized male brain for you!

Pune and the Goa bus journey (17th and 18th February, 2005)

After having slept soundly the previous night at Utpal’s place, I had no specific plans for the day. Tapan joined us at Utpal’s apartment, and later we went for the matinee show of Page 3. It is cool movie, though I enacted the critic when I felt that the first half had way too much of the parties shown. Anyway, all said and done, it was a good movie. Period.

The bus was at 1730 hours and we boarded it on the first stoppage itself. That meant we spent another 90 odd minutes in Pune itself covering virtually all the parts of the city. Again, the search for the “eternal babe” was very much on and we were excited as there was a group of girls in the bus. A dinner of roti and dal (for the three of us) at a highway hotel cost us 105 bucks but it didn’t matter because our gaze was fixed at the energetic group. As luck would have it (must be jealous, after all they always call it Lady Luck), the girls got down at Kolhapur around midnight and with that some of our fantasies got squashed. We reached Goa around 8 o’clock in the morning and Sarkar was there to receive us! The guy was to be admired at, he had been on the train for 40 odd hours, was the least expected to come…and here he was, the first person to reach Goa.

Goaaaaa…..Sun, Sand, Sex and …….Sleep??????

Day One

The hotel in Goa was pleasantly comfortable, neat rooms with all basic facilities. We had opted for a budget hotel, and thought the hotels of GTDC would be modest at best. But our hotel, Colva Residency offered more than what we expected. Located on the beach, it was reasonably cheap. Colva is 8-10 kms from Margao (Madgaon) and the cheapest means of transport is the local bus service. It would cost you 7 bucks and after 45 minutes of old worldly, natural and laidback charm you would land up at the beach at Colva. It is a quaint little place, and boasts of the second longest beach in India.

Our reservation at the hotel was from noon onwards and all of us had landed at Colva by 9 o’clock. The lady at the counter was kind enough to let us check in a room so that we could refresh ourselves. She found me resembling some person she knew and verified which place I was from. I must be her Kumbh ke mele mein bichda hua son!

Utpal, myself, Tapan and Sarkar were having our breakfast at Kentucky’s (wrong spelling…..can’t recollect the original one, and definitely not the franchisee of the original chain) when Som and Jami joined us. Mota, Polly, Kaustav and Deva couldn’t make it because of various reasons. We all headed for the sea as soon as all of us had finished our “natural” business. It was then that Richard joined us. We had a gala time at the calmer Arabian Sea. It was a welcome respite to the heat of the Goan sun. Lunch was a lavish affair at the GTDC restaurant “Little Goa”. Somehow I felt this was the best place where I had food all throughout the trip. But then, this is just my opinion. It is always advisable to explore rather than sit in exotic dining halls. The fatigue of journey set in and we all snored away to glory in the post lunch session. This was only the first of occasions when we felt that we are doing injustice to our travel mood by dozing, but then…..body rules!

Come evening and we decided to explore Colva before venturing out to other parts of Goa. We visited the market area and the beach again. A bottle of Smirnoff along with some Sprite accompanied us to the beach. I tasted the spirit and the sprite which were mixed in crazy proportions. I was thinking…what the heck….isn’t this supposed to be a hic and kick kinda feeling? It was then that my friends told me that I have taken in what is supposed to be a droplet in an ocean. We enquired about the local discotheque. It sounds kind of crazy but many of us had never visited a disc until that point. We got the details and set to “Gatzby’s” around 2200 hours. The entry fee at the disc was 250 per couple, and if you happened to be a stag, still you paid 250 bucks. Certain numbers of free drinks were attached to the entrance fees. Down went 1750 bucks, and the 7 of us were assured at the door that the place had innumerable babes inside. With the entry seal in our forearms, in we went with great expectations of swirling in the crowd of scantily dressed women.

Open door one….a small corridor….open door two….and then you see a square room with the bar on one side (there were 5-6 guys….and a couple), an empty dance floor and then a staircase on the opposite end of the bar which takes you to a lounge kinda space. It wasn’t dark as hell though and some weird music was being played by the DJ. Wait a minute…..didn’t he say innumerable babes?? Duh…7 of us…250 bucks each….and this is just the first day at Goa….why the f**k it happens to us??? The gang decided enough was enough….so what if they bluffed us….lots of drink will compensate and the other 6 (minus me) decided to showcase their dancing skills. I must highlight here that I chose to gaze at them from the bar stool because yours truly happens to be a non-descript reckless machine doing a rewind of one particular step when it comes to dancing. And there wasn’t any crowd present where I could have possibly hidden during my incomprehensible exercise. But my friends were very enthusiastic and they were joined by some others as well. It wasn’t until midnight that people started pouring in the disc. The guy of the couple which was there right from the start was already there at the floor. I took some neat glances at his companion and was wondering if I could use my non-existent conversational skills at this moment. Too late….she started dancing and I was left mumbling. Another 15 minutes passed or so and I realized that it was a crowd in front of me. Time to hide….and shake my hips! I joined my friends and apart from some warnings by the bouncer to our group for being toooooooo casual with the people (read women) around us, there wasn’t much to write about.

We trudged back to the hotel in snail’s pace…..giggling and laughing all the way. It wasn’t a bad investment after all….all of us enjoyed though Utpal looked like he had been listening to lalla lalla lori instead of rock music! All of us but Sarkar and Jami headed for the rooms. It was 2 o’clock and we needed to catch up with some sleep before we started our next day’s rendezvous with Goa. Jami and Sarkar had an adventure of sorts…they claimed to have seen a couple doing what only a couple can do….right there on the beach. Some people have this lifetime dream of having sex on the beach in moonlight…..call me stupid but all I can think of is the moist and cold sand…instead of the moist me! And anyway, wasn’t sex supposed to be a cozy warm affair???

Day Two

We were up early as Som was pretty clear that he wanted to visit all the “happening” beaches in Goa. Apart from Sarkar’s antics, we all somehow managed to get going. The “budget” concept didn’t leave us this time as well and after much deliberation, we took local buses to Margao, and then to Panjim, and then to Calungate. In hindsight, we all realized that we wasted much time in planning and deciding. Here I would like to advice something to all readers. It is a piece of advice I read in some travel magazine and I found it pretty relevant. When you travel, travel light and travel with luxury, compromise on either and your travel is not all that pleasurable.
Calungate is the most popular beach in Goa, and the most frolicked by foreigners. Our group was excited to be in a busy area. Jami coaxed us all into a veggie restaurant for our breakfast. But to his credit, the food was good. A few topless beauties, and the adrenalin (I don’t really know the names of other hormones) started pumping and we all were excited to the core despite the hot weather. We moved on to Anjuna beach, and were instantly in love with the rocky beach. Jami especially was at his nariyal (that’s his pet name) best, and he hopped all around the rocks. We had a great lunch at the cliff edge and it was surprisingly not that highly priced in spite of the location. It was late in the afternoon and Utpal had a bus to catch. He left after getting a real thrashing from us. But it was very sporting of him to come for the trip in spite of being amidst the middle of mayhem at his workplace.
The rest of us decided to walk in the beach for some more time. The interest to walk was waning and the heat was taking its toll. But then we realized we were in right place at the right time. Fascinating women with sun burnt bodies were the dose that we all needed. The sea looked spectacular and inviting. But sense prevailed and we realized we had a long way to cover to get back at Colva. The return trip was again a decision making session and like always, it led us no where.

Day Three and Four

We all took some time to wake up and get ready for the day ahead. Richard, Som and Jami were supposed to leave at different times in the day. We had decided that we will be visiting the churches in old Goa. We took the bus to Margao. Since Richard had to catch a bus from Panjim, we decided to take an early lunch and then hired a van for the old Goa trip. It was a bumpy sort of ride as we reached the Basilica. It is an enormous structure and is dated pretty old (don’t ask me the dates; I was always poor at history). It was only after entering the church that I felt that we missed out on spending more time in these places. The paintings were beautiful and the façade of the inner walls of the church were brilliantly ornate. This was Goa of yesteryears. The Portuguese stamp was evident in the architecture of the houses all across Goa, but the “divine” touch could be attained only after one reached this cathedral.

Richard left to catch his bus from Panjim and we came back to Colva to the hotel. Som and Jami left soon afterwards to catch their buses and just the three of us, I, Tapan and Sarkar were left out. We decided to spend the evening at the beach itself. We walked a lot that night, and spoke a lot about life and its twists. A sound slumber in the hotel beds followed after our dinner. The next morning we decided to splash about in the Arabian Sea once again. The morning chill and the cheerful mood meant that we bathed for a long duration in the salty waters. And we ventured quite deep into the sea, the water level being around my chest height.

We had to check out by noon, and we left together for Margao. Sarkar’s train was due at 2 o’clock whereas our bus for Pune was scheduled at 5. It was tough to kill time and we somehow managed to make it past 5. The journey from Margao to Panjim takes about 45 minutes. Just after the bus left Margao, I realized that it was high time I took a leak. Damn….I thought it would be silly of me to stop the bus and decided to wait until Panjim arrives. The next 45 minutes for me were the most excruciating moments in recent times. Come Panjim and I couldn’t walk fast enough fearing I would drench my pants!

There was this final twist to our Goa sojourn. Thanks to the northern disturbance, which was creating havoc in Kashmir, the trip from Goa to Pune was extremely cold. Tapan and I clung on to each other as we barely managed to spend the night in the bus. We both sighed at the sight of Swargate, a major commercial area in Pune.

Pune and the trip back home, 22nd to 25th February, 2005

I spent the next day and a half in Pune visiting Tapan’s PG college and some shopping centers. The mood was somber and my thoughts were still in Goa. I didn’t want to go back home.

I boarded the train back home, and to my horror, found a woman with the figure of a sumo wrestler seated next to me along with her husband and kid. She was very friendly and readily flashed her 32 teeth on every possible occasion, and was also very grateful in displaying her Mariana trench cleavage. I chose to sleep most of the time in the 32 hour journey or simply lie down to avoid talking to her! Her daughter added to my misery by repeatedly singing “it’s the time to disco”, a popular Bollywood flick, complete with the swing of the hips that somehow looked good on Preity Zinta, but not so in this case!!

My 2 day trip to my hometown, Sambalpur – 26th and 27th February,2005

I took another train on 25th night to reach Sambalpur, a 5 hour journey from Bhubaneswar. I spent the next two days telling my parents about my exploits at Goa, including the women and the alcohol part. Things are somewhat frank these days, now that I am getting older….and am kind of glad about that!

The bus journey from Sambalpur and back in the office, night of 27th February and 28th February, 2005.

My father had booked a ticket for me in this new bus from Sambalpur. The uneventful journey had one humorous, albeit grave exception. This was a new bus that I was traveling in, and all the window panes were rolled up. This particular gentleman in the rear end of the bus was very wary of mosquitoes. Keeping all concerns of health hazards aside, I still could not comprehend how he could come up with the idea of kachua chap in the bus. As luck would have it, one of the screens got alighted and that set the panic button inside the bus. Passengers rushed to the front end crying out fire, fire! Sheer pandemonium ruled as the bus came to a stand still. The fire was doused out, and upon learning the reality behind it, even the bus conductor and driver couldn’t help out laughing their butts off!

I came early to the office anticipating huge amount of work. The chaos of life hadn’t parted ways with me, as I realized all network and connectivity was down. I couldn’t check my mails, could not log onto the LAN to reach my workspace, and was unable to check the intranet as well.

That left me with only one choice……punching down what you have been reading for quite some time now!